Answer

I don’t recall any such thing. In Rashba, responsa vol. 4, no. 234, he discusses the distinction between logical contradictions and physical contradictions (that is, things contrary to the laws of nature), and there he almost copies Maimonides’ words in the Guide.
 

Perpignan.
You also said that you had been told in my name what I believe regarding the exalted event, the revelation at Mount Sinai — that it was entirely prophetic — and that this seemed right to you. But you found it difficult to understand how the entire people, who were not wise like the sages, could attain the level of prophecy, since it is already known that only one who has acquired the prerequisites fit for it can attain the level of prophecy.
Know that in truth, what I believe about that exalted event — and what you told the sage to whom you spoke — is that its essence was prophetic, but not all of it. It contained prophetic elements, and some of it was apprehended through the senses: hearing and sight, ordinary sensory perception. And I will tell you the particulars: which parts, in my opinion, were apprehended by the senses and which were prophetic, and what necessarily led me to this conclusion.
I say that the people’s going out from the camp, their standing at the foot of the mountain, the setting of bounds around the mountain, the ascent of Moses and Aaron, the trembling of the mountain, its smoke, the sound of the shofar, the thunder and the flames — all of this was real, miraculous, and all of them perceived it with their senses. There is nothing in any of this that compels us to depart, even slightly, from its plain meaning. On the contrary, necessity required that it be literally so and by way of miracle, so that all the people would recognize it and know it, thereby magnifying the greatness of that exalted event and of the Torah that was given there publicly and not in secret, as it says: “I have not spoken in secret from the beginning.” Scripture openly proclaims before all that there never was, at any time and for any nation other than the chosen people, anything like that event or like the splitting of the Sea and what followed from it. As it says, “What will you see in the Shulammite, as in the dance of the two camps?” — meaning: what can you point to that was made public before an entire nation, those great and awesome acts that occurred in those two camps, as they were made public in the Shulammite? Even our Rosh Hashanah prayer is founded on this, as we say: “When You revealed Yourself, our King, on Mount Sinai, to teach Your people Torah and commandments, the creatures of creation trembled before You.”
But the content of the commandments themselves, and what followed from that, was prophetic. In my opinion, three considerations indicate this.
The first is that from there the ancestors learned not to be enticed after matters in which any doubt might enter, until they examined the matter thoroughly and found no room for hesitation, only truth. For Moses, the true prophet, peace be upon him, doubted whether they would believe him even though he came to announce to them that he would save them from hard labor, as it says: “They will not believe me.” The whole point there is that we know they would believe only something true and necessary, with no room at all for doubt. Therefore, even after God magnified His deeds through the wonders and awesome acts in Egypt, until He brought them out with an outstretched arm and with great terrors, He still needed to remove doubt from their hearts, because everything done in Egypt might be attributed to natural occurrences or to the acts of the magicians. Therefore they did not believe in Moses with absolute faith until they stood at the splitting of the Sea. This is indicated by what it says there: “And they believed in the Lord and in Moses His servant.” And the translator rendered it: “and in the prophecy of Moses His servant.” For this truly escapes the realm of accidental natural events, since the sea does not split by chance in a single night and return to its strength by morning. This removed doubt from their hearts — but only for the moment. That is why Rahab the harlot said, “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Sea of Reeds before you.” She did not mention any of the earlier wonders and signs in Egypt, only this one, for the reason I have stated.
But even after the splitting of the Sea, some doubt still entered their hearts: perhaps Moses alone, who was wiser than all men and all who preceded him, knew how to do this, and they could not discern it. So they again tended after doubt and hesitation. From that point on, no test of Moses’ prophecy remained except that they themselves should attain some prophetic experience, thereby removing all doubt from their hearts. And this happened at that exalted event, and the truth was verified and holiness vindicated.
The second is the verse: “So that the people may hear when I speak with you.” It is well known that the senses do not apprehend the word of God when He speaks with His prophet. Even if He had spoken with Moses in a created voice, exalted and awe-inspiring beyond the sound of the shofar, thunder, and flames, if that were not apprehended and indicated through the senses, the former doubts would still not be removed. And this would not, for them, be a greater wonder than the splitting of the Sea — so by what would they verify it? Rather, that voice was at least a prophetic voice. If so, they had already risen to one of the levels of prophecy. Each one apprehended according to his own capacity: Moses with a partition unto himself, Aaron with a partition unto himself, Nadab and Abihu with a partition unto themselves, and the rest of the people, each one with a partition unto himself. Not that the whole people attained one and the same apprehension.
The third is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “‘I am the Lord’ and ‘You shall have no other gods’ — they heard these from the mouth of Divine Power.” And how could they have heard them from the mouth of Divine Power except in a prophetic manner? Now, the Rabbi of blessed memory wrote that the reason these two were singled out is that these two principles — namely, God’s existence and His oneness — are in fact grasped by human rational inquiry. Whatever is known by demonstration is, in the prophet’s judgment, the same; and in whatever we know, all are equal and there is no superiority. These two principles, then, were not known solely through prophecy. And according to the Rabbi of blessed memory, with regard to these two, the whole people attained what Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, attained. And the Rabbi of blessed memory said explicitly in these words: “‘They heard them from the mouth of Divine Power’ — this means that they reached them just as Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, reached them, and Moses our Teacher was not an intermediary between them.”
On this I have room for further analysis. If the Rabbi’s view here is that it is not impossible for the whole people, without the prerequisites proper to prophecy, to hear such a matter in a prophetic voice — and that even one unfit for prophecy may know as a prophet knows, and likewise any matter knowable by demonstration — this is something I cannot conceive. For when we speak of what is fit or unfit in the levels of prophecy, we are not speaking on account of the content itself — whether it is the sort of thing that could be known by human inquiry — but on account of the person to whom it is said in the prophetic experience: whether he is fit for that level because of his perfection or not. Not every person can apprehend in the matter of the Chariot what Ezekiel apprehended, even if, according to the Rabbi’s view and premise, some aspect of the Chariot is knowable by human inquiry. For even what is known by demonstration is not attained by everyone without study. If they knew, by way of demonstration, the means by which those two principles become known, then what did prophecy add for them? And if they did not know the demonstrative path, then how did they apprehend it even apart from prophetic vision?
Or shall we say that God informed the whole people, miraculously, of what they would need in terms of learned premises so that the entire people, wise and unwise alike, women no less than men, could reach that partial prophetic level? This too cannot be conceived in light of the agreement among the philosophers, who regard it as impossible that one should prophesy without the prerequisites fitting for it in study, imagination, and intellect. They did not leave this as merely possible, just as they said it is impossible that a donkey or a frog should prophesy. And likewise one cannot say that any slight prophetic content reached them that rises above what is demonstrably knowable by human inquiry, except perhaps to the most perfect among them in accordance with their level of perfection — even if with respect to that small amount they were not fit because they lacked the prerequisites needed for prophetic levels. For then we would be dividing the impossible into more and less.
Moreover, according to this assumption, it would have been more fitting for the whole people to apprehend the other commandments, such as “You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal” — things that require no demonstrative premises and are first intelligibles. And further, if even these first two reached only those fit for them according to their perfection, then all the more so the perfect among them — those fit for prophecy, such as Aaron and the seventy elders — should have attained all of them. Why then only these two, and not by prophecy alone? And furthermore, even in the principle “You shall have no other gods,” they were told something not attainable by human inquiry and demonstration — namely what follows: “You shall not bow down to them and you shall not serve them.” For all the nations, before the Torah was given, made temples to the heavenly bodies, in accordance with the opinion of those who say, “The Lord has forsaken the earth,” and they thought this was demanded by His exaltedness, may He be blessed, and that He had apportioned the host of heaven to all the nations. The proof seemed compelling to them because of generation and corruption in all that is under the heavens.
And indeed it appears that the whole people heard them, not only a few individuals among them, for the wise are only a small portion of the nation, and otherwise doubt would not have been removed from the hearts of the majority. Moreover, Scripture says: “Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words,” and it says: “So that the people may hear when I speak with you.” It speaks generally of the people, not of individuals within the people. And it says: “And you came near to me and said: Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire.”
Therefore I find no way to mix into this the assumptions of the philosophers and to classify this as impossible. Why should we classify it as impossible, when it is within the capacity of human souls to rise to the prophetic level, just as the holy prophets of Israel rose to it? It is not impossible that the blessed God could in a single moment make the entire people wise, those who stood at that exalted event, by granting them abundant overflow in divine visions. As it says regarding Bezalel: “And I filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with every craft” — and he was very young in years. And it is written: “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel … and I will draw off some of the spirit that is upon you and place it upon them.” And regarding Solomon it is written: “Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you.” And in the Midrash they said on “And behold, it was a dream”: a bird stood upon his son and chirped, and he understood what the chirping meant. They also said, of blessed memory, “A maidservant at the sea saw what Ezekiel the prophet did not see.” And there there was no place for a vision of spheres and the four elements, but for inward prophetic matters.
Nor is the comparison valid between what they regarded as impossible — that one should go to sleep without wisdom and wake a prophet — and the impossibility that a donkey or frog should prophesy. For speech does not exist in other living species, and they do not prophesy. But the human species does prophesy by its nature, and is fit to move from potential to actuality. The matter written concerning Saul teaches us this. He was not known for the wisdom fitting the level of prophecy, and yet he prophesied among the sons of the prophets. For they wondered about him and said, “Is Saul too among the prophets?” — meaning: even Saul, who had not engaged in wisdom like the sons of the prophets, now prophesies with the prophets without the proper prerequisites.
And do not challenge me from what our Sages of blessed memory said: “Prophecy rests only upon one who is wise, mighty, and rich.” For that was said as the normal rule for prophets, and the difficulty does not arise from one individual or many whom God wished to make prophesy for a temporary need or for a specific matter. None of this poses any difficulty for those who believe in creation ex nihilo.
And in my view there are two categories of the impossible. The first is what is absolutely and intrinsically impossible, such as that the side of a square should be greater than its diagonal, or that what happened did not happen, and many similar things. This is absolutely impossible in itself; possibility cannot even be conceived regarding it. The second is not impossible in itself, but only relative to us and because wisdom is withheld from us regarding what is impossible according to nature. For we do not find a rock producing water, or the sea splitting for a time and then returning, or the sun and moon standing still, not circling and not moving from their place, or the sun moving backward, and many similar things. The resurrection of the dead belongs in this category as well.
But none of this is impossible for us except because of the limited wisdom of all created beings and their lack of power to alter what has been stamped with the seal of nature. In relation to the law of the Creator, blessed be He, it is not impossible at all; rather, it is required by His wisdom, may He be blessed, for no deficiency or weakness in the power of His wisdom can be ascribed to Him, since He and His wisdom are one. And we do not know His wisdom until we know His essence. In this way all the miracles that have been performed and that will yet be performed are upheld. And no room for doubt remains in all that Scripture has said in matters that we need to uphold, according to their plain meaning, for the maintenance of faith and what follows from it. But in places where we have no such need, if you wish, you may interpret them according to philosophical wisdom, if you find it necessary to do so, or simply according to plain divine will alone. That is what appears to me on these matters as a whole.